The guy that played McLovin in Superbad also makes music, in a LOT of bands

“McLovin? What kind of a stupid name is that, Fogell? What, are you trying to be an Irish R&B singer?” Just as Jason Biggs will always be the guy who fucked a pie, Christopher Mintz-Plasse may never truly escape the nerdy shadow Superbad cast on his Hollywood career, although thankfully there’s been no sign of R(uari) Kelly. Instead, he’s spent the last decade or so switching between his love of music and acting.

In 2007, around the release of Superbad and the advent of McLovin’, Mintz-Plasse bought a drumkit with some of his earnings from the film to push forward the riff-driven rock of his band The Young Rapscallions. After eight years and just one EP, the group came to an unceremonious end when the bassist quit. Via text. On Mintz-Plasse’s birthday.

Not to be deterred, he moved from drumming for the Young Raps to playing bass in his next band, Bear On Fire. Made up of former bandmates and friends, they released their debut album, ‘Velicata Black’, in 2015 after smoking weed, jamming and eventually arriving at an easy-going indie sound that proved to be so inoffensive that not a single review of it seems to exist anywhere on the Internet.

So far, Mintz-Plasse’s story is as largely unremarkable as the majority of the celebrities that have come under the ACPG microscope over the last 12 months – but then we hit his latest group, Mainman. After trawling through YouTube to watch Young Rapscallions and Bear On Fire live sessions, and being pleasantly surprised by Mintz-Plasse’s solid sticksmanship, the expectations for a third instalment of acceptable, well-meaning music inspired by the likes of My Morning Jacket, The Allman Brothers and Eric Clapton seemed set. Instead, Mainman shifted into sighing, Death Cab for Cutie-inspired pop (‘SSP’) and the anthemia of later years Biffy Clyro (‘Feeling’) on their oddly kaleidoscopic ‘Mistaker EP’ released earlier this year.

With their second EP of the year released last month (it’s called ‘Social Security Party’), the band has improbably slid into the dexterous guitar lines of Dirty Projectors on ‘Grateful’ amidst the expected M.O.R. alternative rock dirge of the rest of the EP. Still, 10 years, three bands and a few different instruments, you have to respect Mintz-Plasse’s commitment to progress, however slow. And when you can create a pleasure as guilty as the slick, Chromeo-esque funk of ‘W.W.H.’, that one track alone is enough to ensure that it hasn’t all been in vain.

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